Posted!

Join the Nation's Conversation

Wounded Marine vet makes most of help he receives

Thomas Trotter received a new house through the Military Warriors Support Foundation and a new riding mower to help get him started in the landscape business. By Craig Rubadoux, edited by Caroline Perez. Posted June 26, 2013
Florida Today

R. Norman Moody, Florida Today
1:13 p.m. EDT June 26, 2013

Donated home and lawn equipment help give Tom Trotter a new start as a civilian.

Thomas Trotter of West Melbourne, Fla., talks about his new home donated by Chase Bank and the Military Warriors Support Foundation.(Photo: Craig Rubadoux, Florida Today)

Story Highlights

Trotter was shot in the arm by enemy fire while serving in Afghanistan

Comedian Jeff Foxworthy helped donate a commercial mower so Trotter could start a lawn care business

Trotter said he and a friend plan to start an organization to help wounded veterans

So intense was the pain that Trotter thought he was also shot elsewhere when the barrage of bullets hit and left his rifle inoperable.

"I'm hit, I'm hit," Trotter can be heard screaming on the recording from a camera he carried attached to his helmet. "I need a tourniquet, I need a tourniquet."

The injury in the firefight in Sangin, Afghanistan, ended Trotter's nine-year Marine Corps career. But he didn't lose his Marine's determination as he struggled to start over in civilian life.

The Military Warrior Support Foundation and Chase Bank stepped in, recently presenting Trotter with a mortgage-free home, and Grasshopper Mowers in partnership with comedian Jeff Foxworthy gave him a new commercial mower to help him get started in a lawn care business.

"It makes me proud, it makes me feel good about my service," said Trotter. "It shows that people in America still care."

While living with a friend, Trotter applied to Military Warrior Support Foundation.

Grasshopper selected Trotter from a pool of candidates provided by the organization — veterans who had previously been chosen for mortgage-free homes through its Homes4WoundedHeroes program – because of his experiences while on active duty and his dream of owning a lawn care business.

Thomas Trotter cuts the lawn front yard of his new home in West Melbourne, Fla., using the Grasshopper mower donated to him by the company and comedian Jeff Foxworthy to start a landscaping business.(Photo: Craig Rubadoux, Florida Today)

"We are extremely pleased to partner with Military Warriors Support Foundation to donate this mower to Tom," said Ruthanne Stucky, executive vice president at Grasshopper. "Grasshopper recognizes the sacrifice made by those who serve in our armed forces, and this is our way of showing appreciation and gratitude to our nation's veterans."

Trotter completed 10 days of classroom instruction and a month of online study as part of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities at the Florida State University to help prepare him to start his lawn care business.

Trotter, 28 also recently moved into his three-bedroom home with his girlfriend and his two young daughters.

The homes donated through the Military Warrior Support Foundation remain under the control of the nonprofit organization for the first three years as it provides mentoring to recipients on family and financial issues.

This all came at a time when Trotter was struggling to adjust back to civilian life while still working to regain full use of his left hand. He was medically retired from the Marine Corps after the injury left him paralyzed in the left arm for eight months.

"Transition out of the military is difficult," he said. "It was rough trying to find a job."

Despite some lingering discomfort and still being unable to stretch all his fingers straight out, Trotter feels he has come a long way since he jumped into a filthy ditch to take cover from the bullets still flying around him after he was shot in the left arm.

It was June 14, 2011, and Trotter was on patrol with his unit from the 2nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, when a barrage of enemy fire hit Trotter in the arm and another Marine in the legs.

"Can you make sure I'm not hit anywhere else," Trotter said to a medic treating him.

"Once I realized that it was just my arm, I said, 'Thank God,' " he said. "There were a couple of guys in my platoon that didn't make it that year."

Trotter chose the Marines after high school because he felt he did not have the support for college. He wanted to serve after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

His mother died when he was 12, and his father works on oil pipelines in Saudi Arabia. The Marines became a good fit where he hoped to make a career.

In his nine years and one month in the service, he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and also served in Haiti after the massive January 2010 earthquake.

Trotter said he is grateful for the good start he has been given.

He and a friend now are starting an organization to help wounded veterans.

"I wish more service members could have the homecoming I got," he said.